Computer users, whether they be businesses or individuals, often need to share access to data files. For this reason, data files are often stored at some location accessible by many different users, such as a computer server. Users can then access the data files on the server through a communications network.
Typically, a computer server allows access to a database that stores many, many data files. This database can be arranged into a filing system, usually listing the data files by file name. Finding data files by name can be fairly easy, but finding data files having particular characteristics can be difficult, because the names of the data files may not sufficiently inform users about characteristics of the data files.
To address this need to find data files having certain characteristics, some current servers include libraries that describe the data files accessible by the server in greater detail than simply the data files' names. These servers can also include a web server to enable users to see and access the libraries. For example, some current computer servers include Microsoft SharePoint™ Products and Technologies, which provide a library and web server that describes data files accessible by the computer server.
FIG. 1 shows a simplified model of a typical server and library. FIG. 1 shows a server 102 that includes a database 104 with data files 106, a filing system 108, and a library 110, as well as a web server 112.
The library 110 typically contains basic information about the data files 106. When a computer user 114 accesses the library 110 through a communication network 116, the server 102 (through the web server 112) presents the information in the library 110 as a table. Often this information (also called “properties”) can be easily seen and/or searched by the user 114.
Referring to FIG. 2, a table 202 is shown that includes properties of the data files 106. Three data files, a first, second, and third data file 204, 206, and 208, are shown in a part 210 of the filing system 108. The table 202 shows an example of four properties of these three data files.
Each row of the table 202 is dedicated to each of the data files 204, 206, and 208. Each of these rows can contain a reference and/or be uniquely identified with the data file to which it is dedicated. Each column of the table 202 is dedicated to a property of these data files. Each row and column can intersect at a cell; this cell can provide information unique to a particular property for a particular data file. The first column shows a property for each of the data file's names, called a name property 212. The second column provides an author's name property 214 about each of the data files. The third column provides a creation-date property 216. The fourth provides a last-modified-date property 218. These properties inform the user 114 about each of the three data files' name, author, creation date, and last date it was modified.
Other information can also be added to the library 110. This information can be added, usually at the computer user's 114 request. This information is typically information entered into the library 110 by the computer user 114. Thus, the user 114 can request that the library 110 add an additional column and then manually enter information into that column.
Typical libraries are inadequate in many ways, however. The properties included in current libraries often fail to inform the user 114 about what data is actually in the data files 106. Rather, these properties typically provide the user 114 with information exterior to the data files 106, such as when they were created or who authored them.